Bathed in grayscale, "9th March, Accra, Ghana, 2024" by Carlos Idun-Tawiah conjures a quiet universe where memory and hope converge.

The image, part of his "Hero, father, friend" series, finds its setting in a modest room: on the left, the silhouette of a child stands reflected on a patterned wall adorned with portrait photographs, while an upright piano and sheet music rest in shadow to the right. The composition delicately suspends a narrative between generations, inviting viewers to contemplate both absence and presence, what is seen and what is felt.

The child's shadow, hand poised on hip, speaks of curiosity and transition—a figure at the threshold between innocence and self-awareness. By casting only a shadow, Idun-Tawiah evokes the elusiveness of childhood and the way personal history lingers in spaces filled with family relics and silent instruments. This technique is emblematic of the photographer’s style, which blends fiction and memoir to illuminate the rhythms and textures of Black familial life in Ghana.

The piano anchors the narrative in everyday ritual, resonating with faint echoes of songs and stories. The surrounding framed portraits amplify a sense of ancestral presence, their silent gaze linking the living child’s outline to those who have come before.

Idun-Tawiah’s use of light and shadow underscores the fluidity of roles—hero, father, friend—suggesting they are not fixed titles but mutable states that families navigate across time.

With intentional restraint and visual poetry, the photograph invites viewers to reflect on the bonds and legacies that shape contemporary African identity, reframing memory as both inheritance and possibility. In that interplay of shadow and artifact, "9th March, Accra, Ghana, 2024" becomes a meditation on belonging, transformation, and the enduring, fluid dance of familial love.